Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith’s team took a little time on Thanksgiving Day to check out Manhattan Judge Arthur Engoron’s brief to the New York State Appellate division which cited an extremely high volume of violent and antisemitic MAGA terrorist threats to his clerk after the higher court stayed the gag order on disgraced former President Trump in his state civil fraud case there. Figuring that it might help with their own similar situation stay on the gag order that had been imposed by Circuit Judge Tanya Chutkan, they passed it along to the DC Court of Appeals with just a cover letter attached writing that because the appeals panel “inquired at oral argument about evidence of ongoing threats and harassment” they’ll submit Engoron’s appeal as “supplemental authority.” Team Trump promptly freaked the fuck out in a Friday response, writing:

“The prosecution’s letter cites a submission, in a completely separate case, to the New York Appellate Division containing ‘new’ information that dates to October 3, 2023, two weeks before the Gag Order in this case was entered on October 17. The letter is an impermissible attempt to supplement the record on appeal with irrelevant information that could have been, but was not, submitted to the district court below. To date, the prosecution has never submitted any evidence of alleged ‘threats’ or ‘harassment’ to any prosecutor, court staffer, or potential witness in this case.”

“This falls short of the ‘solidity of evidence’ required to justify a prior restraint. Moreover, the cited affirmation, albeit irrelevant, concedes that ‘Mr Trump did not directly threaten Ms Greenfield,’ and instead describes speech by unidentified, independent third parties. This confirms that the prosecution seeks to impose ‘a speech burden based on audience reactions,’ which ‘is simply government hostility and intervention in a different guise.’ The prosecution ignores that the New York trial judge and the Principal Law Clerk are judicial officers, and the Principal Law Clerk has violated New York law by engaging in forbidden partisan activity while that case was pending.”

“Appellant’s ‘The operations of the courts and the judicial conduct of judges are matters of utmost public concern.’ The Special Counsel has brought an inflammatory, lawless indictment, has made false and misleading statements about President Trump, and has leaked confidential information in order to harm President Trump. Both the indictment and the Gag Order represent an unconstitutional attempt to silence President Trump, they are clearly election interference.”